Joseph ‘Jo’ Mielziner

An American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is “the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway”, and worked on both stage plays and musicals.

Mielziner was considered one of the most influential theatre designers of the 20th century, designing the scenery and often the lighting for more than 200 productions, many of which became American classics. He “pioneered ‘selective realism’ in scenic design” [Barranger, Milly S. – Mielziner in Theatre: A Way of Seeing, Cengage Learning, 2005, ISBN 0-495-00472-3, p. 258].
According to his obituary, he was perhaps “praised most often…for his sweeping canvas of people under the Brooklyn Bridge, used as a backdrop for Maxwell Anderson’s Winterset.